Knowledgeable horse people are invited to create their own blog within the Virtual Equestrian. If you have the skills to be a photo journalist your work will be featured not only within your blog but also in the main editorial areas of the site. We have advertisers willing to pay for promotion of their sponsorships, products and services to an equestrian audience. Or you may have clients who are… read more

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Virtual Equestrian Blogs

Virtual Equestrian Blogs can be created by Collection members. All blogs must be related to horses and can be on any breed or discipline.
Bloggers are encouraged to provide coverage of equestrian events. Blog contributions may be featured elsewhere on the Virtual Equestrian site if they are of high quality. Potential bloggers are encouraged to contact Cyberhorse to discuss their plans and have their blogging facility enabled.

Even under current renovations Boneo Park still looked amazing as was the atmosphere. Boneo Park held yet another brilliant dressage event over the weekend.

All riders were offered a complimentary stable due to works being completed to the grounds to minimise the damage to the newly seeded areas and levelled ground that is being prepared for the new stable blocks - yes blocks!

What a great way to manage their facilities and also to provide a hassle free place for their competitors which meant riders were able to concentrate on what lay ahead of them - well done Boneo Park for the gesture I am sure it won't be forgotten.

The Big Tour is always impressive to see, the wining combination to take out the Grand Prix event was Pauline Carnovale riding Urestan. In the FEI Intermediate I Georgina Foot took out the honours here with her gelding Bellaire Cannavaro followed closely in second place by Georgia Haythorpe on her lovely mare Letizia. Georgia and Letizia just missed out by a narrow 2% on the winning score.

On the Sunday the riding continued and Justine Greer won the Advanced 5.1 on Jaybee Angelina scoring almost 73% in one of her scores - what an amazing ride!

Well done to all riders over the weekend and thank you to all the staff at Boneo Park for making it such a great place to be.

Mary Hanna wins the Peter Horobin Big Tour Championship!

Another CDI has come and gone at Boneo Park this week. It was full of new events and it certainly did not disappoint. The PCAV and HRCAV had classes held at the CDI carnival along with the Para Equestrian riders. The Para Equestrians let nothing get in their way of riding their horses. You can see such an amazing bond between the horses and riders (pictured below is Dale Thompson Para Equestrian)

Mary Hanna won the Peter Horobin Big Tour Championship riding Sancette. Mary will now place her horse in to quarantine as they will now head off to the World Equestrian Games to compete in Normandy, France.

There are some amazing horses coming up the ranks. One being Agent Deu Jue ridden by David Schoobridge in the Medium 4.2 class on the Friday. David scored over 70% with his ride and executed amazing precision during his test. A very exciting duo to watch.

In the Advanced 5.2 Brett Parbery also rode to success riding his mount PPH Zeppelin and took out the Advanced Championship overall. These guys make it look so easy and effortless. It is truly mesmerising to see this high quality if rider one after the other.

And to keep it in the family Amanda Schoobridge also rode an amazing test on her horse Revelwood Destiny on the Saturday in the Advanced 5.3 class. Amanda also took out the honours of this class. Amanda beat David in the Advanced Championship with second place and David was third.

Bianca Souter... some of you may have heard of her and some may not. For those who have not I am sure you will hear more soon enough.

I met with Bianca on the weekend at Boneo Park's Combined Training Day August 10th. We got to talking about her riding aspirations and her horse beautiful Thoroughbred horse Jett.

How did you come to find Jett?We came across Jett in August 2011 through Megan Joyce. We were originally looking at another horse she had who was also off the track, but was a bit too small. Megan mentioned she had Jett but he was recently retired form racing so he knew next to nothing.

What education had Jett had before you got him if any? Jett barely had anything really as he was fresh off the track. He was 3 years old when I gave him his new home. He is a rising 4 year old now and we are making terrific progress. Jett and I placed second at Boneo Park the weekend gone in the Combined Training Day in the Pre Novice events.

What sort of riding do you do with Jet? We mainly do eventing. I couldn't be more pleased with him. Jett loves to do Cross Country. I am truly fortunate though as he's good at all phases of eventing. It's almost too good to be true.

Have you had many setbacks within regards to training such a young horse in particular one that had raced? Fortunately nothing to dramatic, just the occasional upset stomach and a torn peck muscle recently. Jett can be quite a nervous anxious type horse so we're constantly working on that.

How has Jett's attitude been in regards to his new life after racing. Does he think he is still a racehorse? I swear its still on sometimes! I guess that's just a perk with owning a TB that has come off the track. Jett is defiantly a different horse from when we got him! Bonding and creating a relationship with your horse is the best way to over come that and I believe we have a great partnership.

Bianca, what are your goals from here, where do you want to Jett off too? My current goal is to compete at Melbourne International 3 Day Event 2014 (no pressure) at 1 star level, but aside from that I just want to get the horse up and running competitively above pre novice, that's the goal.

Can you see yourself owning another Thoroughbred to compete with in the future? Definitely!

Jett's race name was SnapJack and his show alias is "High Demand" I think in future both Jett and Bianca will be in High Demand.

Congratulations to them both and I wish them every success together in achieving their dreams and goals.

If you are considering owning a Thoroughbred this story is proof that commitment and hard work pays off and furthermore they're a breed of horse well worth investing your time in to.

Cavalia... How do I write this story, it's harder than I thought. I will try to paint a perfect picture as I go and give the show all the credit it deserves. It's a jaw dropping breath taking experience for all who come to see it.

The emotion and the energy of animals intertwined with their riders is a true joy to watch and to see the partnership go blazing through the arena spectacular together is utterly mind blowing. Such a gorgeous display of trust between an animal and human.

Then suddenly... it was as though out of no where, people just dropped down from the roof on ropes doing tricks and then acrobats started doing somersaults, back flips, and stacking on top of one another 4 people high in front of us in the arena! Balance and agility was out in force and it was spectacular to see. The choreography was spot on.

To every beat of a drum or strum of guitar there is meaning to the movement to the beat. There is a live band playing behind Cavalia throughout the show. The band has TV screens there so they can visualise what is happening and be at the ready to help with improvisation and extend a song if needed. You can't tell they are doing this, as you think it is all part of the show!

On the ground you have horses and people inter acting. People were holding poles for horses as they jump.

Normand Latourelle (pictured above) is the Founder and Artistic Director of Cavalia. The show has travelled the world and it finally has made it here in Australia along with it's 100 containers, 48 horses representing 11 different breeds. The horses come from France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, the United States, Morocco, Australia Moldavia and Russia. When you add it all up that is a lot of hay for the stars of the show! I can assure you they get nothing but the best.

There are 30 riders and performers who make up the human team for Cavalia. They come from all over the world and there is one lucky Aussie in the mix (unfortunately, no it's not me, lol) All in all Cavalia employs 120 people on a full time basis.

From start to finish I was fully entertained. There were times I did not know whether to look up to the sides or straight in front to know where the next surprise was coming from. The show is full of gorgeous moments with the fantastic displays of acrobatics, horses and fantastic music to suit the happenings on stage. I certainly did not feel like I was at a circus. I felt as though I was in a dream but in fact it was reality and I was involved, it was so special to see.

A very big thank you to Fiona McNaught Managing Director of Boneo Park for the invitation to the Media show today. I was blown away and have had an experience of a life time.

Did you know - It takes 17 days to set up the entire Cavalia big top. The arena had only been finished this morning before we all entered in to it for the show. At 9.30 am to be exact!

The horses (and riders) endured about 7 weeks of quarantine, 2 weeks in Los Angles and then 5 weeks in Sydney. The first stop - Brisbane. Cavalia also has had a successful show in Sydney and now here they are in Melbourne until August 18th.

Build it and they will come as the saying goes... And boy did they... in their droves! At Boneo Park on Saturday 29th June they had over 100 entries and still managed to finished ahead of time. What a credit to the organisers there and the riders for being so efficient. And then if Saturday was not enough 'BAAM' there was more show jumping again on the Sunday the 30th.

Why wouldn't there be a huge turn out when you have an Olympian there to build your courses for your entrants? Gavin Chester is a master of his craft and I must say he is not to shabby at building jumping courses too. He threw in some pretty technical courses over the weekend and did a pretty amazing job as did the riders for completing them.

Every now and then throughout the weekend I would get a chance to catch up with Gavin in between me taking photos, Gavin on pole retrieving duty and him changing the course where at one point I was fortunate enough to get a few tips off the champion himself.

So I would like to say, thank you Gavin. Thank you for giving your time and coming all the way to Boneo Park to help the next generation with the sport. I look forward to many more events where you will be involved and maybe even get to a lesson or two off of you when I next attempt jumping.

Apart from me getting to Boneo Park well after 11am I was still able to capture some awesome moments of the jumping for the Combined Training Day down at the indoor arena on Saturday.

Me myself, deep down I really wished that my horse Frankie was able to do that event but it was not to be. I hope to get back there to Boneo Park in August.

As usual there was plenty of action, horses were a bit unsure of the double along the side wall as they would see another horse jumping along side of them... eeeeekkk!! The dreaded old mirror... The riders did an amazing job with their horses to over come this slight obstacle.

(Ben Tyson riding Buddy)

In the Introductory class Jessica Theobald came first, Bianca Souter also had a win in the Preliminary, where Jamie Lowe was 1st in the Pre Novice and the 1* was won by Ben Tyson.

Congratulations to all of the riders and helpers there at Boneo Park for another magic event.

If anyone is contemplating going to Boneo Park with their horses, I say go for it! You will not be disappointed. The surface and facilities are fantastic with helpful staff on hand to assist with your needs on the day.

No one is made to feel out of place. I have made many friends from attending various events and look forward to each one I am at whether I am riding or not.

I can not wait for this weekend as there is show jumping on again. Olympian Gavin Chester is designing the course. Get your entries in!!

(Diane Staggard riding TP Serenity)

If you would like to see more of my work you can view it on Facebook or my website. Thank you to all who have taken the time to contact me so far.

Until now I have never really written anything official... So today I try my hand at blogging for Cyberhorse for the first time. I will keep it short and sweet.

I am horse crazy and have been from 4 years of age. I begged my parents for a horse ALL the time. I somehow managed to ride everyone else's horse to get my fix as I never had one of my very own.

For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed taking photos.

Somehow along the way I have managed to combine taking photos with my favourite animal of all time.

Quite often I am at events down the Mornington Peninsula and surrounds taking photos. I now have a horse of my own whom I adore. Frankie is his name (pictured above) and he formally raced as Valedictum and has since retired with me back in 2009.

Life is good... I hope to bring you all interesting photos and updates from events I cover. Ride safe one and all.